Weight Hacking – Week 6 Update

Overview

Week 6 was awesome. It went by quickly and I made some progress. To maximize the effects of night-time fat burning, I added a slow 30-minute run to my morning routine. I woke up, visited the restroom, got dressed and hit the road. These runs helped me get over the wall I hit last week and were mentally therapeutic. The first few days were a challenge to get out the door, but I eventually looked forward to them as I went to bed each night. Let’s get into the review.

(This overview section is repeated every week, just in case someone finds this blog in the middle) It’s time to review how the week went. Like the previous two weeks, we will review and learn from this week using a scrum sprint review and retrospective. For a brief description of scrum and why we are using a common software development framework to review weight loss, see Weight Hacking – Week 1.

Review

Body Progress

In week 6, I continued to tone up a little. I am not lifting heavy during this weight cut, so I am not adding muscle mass, just toning up what muscle I already have. The protein in the diet is allowing me to keep muscle while I lose fat. I am happy with the progress.

Day 1 – Body

Day 7 – Body

Weight Loss Progress

NOTE: I weighed myself first thing each morning. Number one was to go #1. Number two was to step on the scale. I logged my daily weight in MyFitnessPal.

I am crazy close to my goal of 165 lbs. I scheduled eight weeks for this cut, but I believe I will reach 165 lbs some time in the middle of next week (week seven).

Day 1 – Scale

Day 7 – Scale

As hoped, the scale bounced around, but tended towards down. I am happy to be passed last week’s 169-ish lbs wall.

Weight Graph

Food and Exercise Log

The food and exercise log is a lot of information. To save you from scrolling past it to get to the retrospective, the food and exercise log is provided as Review Appendix A – Food and Exercise Log below.

Retrospective

What went well?

Morning Runs: Hitting the road shortly after waking worked in several ways. I lost some weight and used the time to think.

Runkeeper Daily Run Log

eMeals:eMeals is a reliable constant in this journey. We are continuing to focus on meals with very few carbs.

Darebee: I’m eleven days into the Darebee 10,000 Crunches Challenge. 360 crunches is no joke. I have to partition them into sets of 25. I am also tacking on three sets of 25 push-ups after the crunches. Notice this is up from three sets of 20 push-ups. They are getting easier.

What didn’t go so well?

Allergies: I am still getting my butt handed to me by allergies. I sleep every night with a Breath Right strip on my nose, just so I don’t mouth-breath all night. I sometimes have a bruise on the bridge of my nose, which raises questions from friends and co-workers. Allergy symptoms and other discomfort pick away at will power. If you are experiencing discomfort due to sickness or injury, be aware of cravings.

What have I learned?

Paleo Alternatives: The hardest part of this diet for me, is the lack of bread and cereal. This week, I went on a mission to find recipes to fill this void at the grocery store and found that it’s already been filled. I’ve included links to the Amazon entries, but I found these for about the same price in my neighborhood health food store:

What still puzzles me?

These questions still remain, so I will leave them in this section as a reminder:

How can I leverage the hunger-curbing effects of the coffee intermittent fasting? Would this introduce hormonal issues and stall or stop fat-burning? Stacking your calories in a small window at the end of day is in line with The Warrior Diet, which worked for me for the six weeks I tried it over 2 years ago. Maybe I can combine the ideas of the two and get something that works well.

What can I put in place to hold me accountable for the second half of this weight cut? Is there something for eating discipline that would work as well as Pact for the cardio discipline? I’m on the lookout. Note: Maybe monitoring ketones with urine strips? Using a strip every bathroom break would encorage me to keep every meal clean.

Conclusion

That’s it for my week six of weight hacking. I’d love to see your reviews and retrospectives. Please share your progress in the comments here or in the Weight Hackers Facebook group. The Facebook group is open to the public. Join in the conversation and support get support from fellow weight hackers. Plan well and stay strong!